Will the Phoenix VA hospitals former director Sharon Helman be held accountable?

[skp093018]

"Start sending politicians, starting at the top, to the VA for their health care..... Another 535 should not overwhelm the system too much!!!!" Start with those who have a poor record of support for Veterans issues.

 

Thumbs up!!!!

Gemstone

[strawdog]

Start with those who have a poor record of support for Veterans issues.

 

Thumbs up!!!!

Gemstone

By starting at the top I meant starting at the federal level. The problem is that they ALL have a poor record, otherwise criminal fraud to obtain bonuses wouldn't be an issue.

 

Send them all starting with the Feds then work it on down!!!

 

Dave

[skp51443]

The new plan of rotating senior folks looks to be the best possible way to accomplish nothing while not leaving anyone in place long enough to be held accountable.

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/investigations/2014/07/10/phoenix-va-scandal-experts-question-rotation-acting-directors/12444317/

 

just a snip of the article

 

 

 

Several national experts in public policy and executive management sharply criticized the strategy, warning that it is counterproductive to making long-term changes at the Phoenix VA, ground zero in the national VA scandal. Rotating leaders is a management practice that is unheard of, especially for a large health-care system in need of a cultural change, they said.

"That's one of the worst management strategies that I've ever heard," said Dr. Joel Shalowitz, clinical professor and director of health industry management at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "I don't know any successful organization that has done this, that has been successful, or turned around by implementing a rotating system of leaders."

Costie, director of the VA Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, is scheduled to serve through Nov. 6, then return to Ohio. Young's assignment will overlap with Costie's this week.

Experts raised three key problems with rotating leaders at the Phoenix VA:

• Lack of accountability for the leader and their decisions while in charge.

• Insufficient time to make significant culture change, or signify to staff the director has a vision for a new culture that is worth their buy-in.

• The seeming lack of commitment it portrays to the public and to veterans.

"It sends a terrible message to them (veterans), that the organization is not in it for the long haul and is looking to ... temporary maintenance rather than fundamental reform. It's just awful to those veterans," said Robert Durant, an American University professor who teaches public management and policy.

[strawdog]

The new plan of rotating senior folks looks to be the best possible way to accomplish nothing while not leaving anyone in place long enough to be held accountable.

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/investigations/2014/07/10/phoenix-va-scandal-experts-question-rotation-acting-directors/12444317/

 

just a snip of the article

 

OMG, at best it allows fraud to be spread more effectively throughout the system AND makes it harder to follow the trail of the fraud...

 

Eventually we are going to see the final and most desirable solution as far as all involved are concerned..... Promote them out of the limelight into other agencies and let their star pupils take over the reign for another round of corruption.

 

Dave

[skipmid]

Hi Guys -

 

I don't have an RV, but I have a non-profit I am helping www.thewoundedwalk.org and here www.facebook.com/thewoundedwalk that is in dire need of an RV to work as a chase car for August for a walk through the Mojave from Palm Springs CA to Phoenix AZ to raise awareness for combat wounded and affected vets nationwide. I posted here only because I thought I may find someone or company in Phoenix that would donate, or severely discount an RV to use as a chase car for this crazy, dedicated, and passionate walk. The founders have some great national press, but primarily through their DC connections so I am having problems getting through to someone in the Phoenix market for this last needed component of the walk. Otherwise Adam and Ross, and Jeremy are sleeping in the desert every night in the shadow of their Honda Pilot. Can anyone help me on this? Please message me if so, or reach out directly to Adam via The Wounded Walk website. Thank for any help or direction!

 

Skip

[skp51443]

If you have a reply for Skip please put it in this topic:

 

http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=111992#entry709299

[skp51443]

This is in the local news today:

 

http://www.kfyi.com/articles/arizona-news-118695/another-va-whistleblower-suspended-12589475/

 

 

(Source 24/7) - The new interim director responsible for running V-A hospitals in the southwest suspended an employee for filing a complaint. A Project on Government Oversight Report claims Elizabeth Freeman placed an employee on leave last month. The report says she suspended the worker after she complained veterans were suffering from delays and errors in getting medications. The new director whose now responsible for instituting reforms accused the worker of "disrespectful correspondence."

 

So if you complain about a problem it is "disrespectful correspondence" and you get suspended and no pay check?

[skp51443]

More on this in a local paper:

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/07/22/va-watchdog-regional-boss-criticized/12980417/

 

A snip:

 

 

 

The Washington, D.C., watchdog group, better known as POGO, has monitored treatment of VA whistle-blowers since disclosures by physicians in Arizona helped expose a systemwide breakdown in the care of veterans.

According to POGO, Stuart Kallio, a pharmacy technician in Palo Alto, wrote a memo this spring complaining that veterans in the Northern California VA hospital were suffering from "unconscionable errors and delays" in the delivery of medications.

POGO says e-mails verify that Kallio was suspended in late May, then placed on administrative leave June 20 by Freeman, pending an ­investigation.

[skp51443]

Another good local article with a few snips, read the whole thing if you can as it is worth your time:

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/investigations/2014/08/08/va-scandal-secretary-recruiting-medical-workers-tough-phoenix/13805645/

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald promised to implement sweeping reform during a Friday visit to the Phoenix VA Health Care System, but he acknowledged it would be difficult to recruit doctors and other medical professional because of a national scandal that has enveloped the organization.

 

McDonald announced that the Joint Commission, the nation's oldest and largest health-care standards and accrediting organization, will conduct an independent review of all scheduling practices at VA medical facilities.
McDonald also said that:

Since May 15, more than 3,000 appointments have been scheduled for veterans in Phoenix.

More than 6,500 veterans have received more than 8,000 referrals to community providers when it was determined care was unavailable at the VA.

The Phoenix VA has increased capacity by expanding hours of operation, including for primary care and mental health.

 

 

 

The VA Office of Inspector General found that up to 1,700 veterans in Phoenix had been kept off an electronic wait list for first-time appointments and that scheduling records were falsified and manipulated in other ways.

VA officials have since reached out to every one of those patients to schedule appointments, McDonald said. He was unable to say how many had died before they were contacted.

The dog and pony show sure sounded great but what actually happens is what matters.

 

----

 

Another local news outlet via the AP had a very different story:

 

http://www.kfyi.com/articles/arizona-news-118695/new-va-secretary-visits-phoenix-va-hospital-12652960/

 

 

PHOENIX (AP) — Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald visited a VA hospital Friday for the first time since taking over the embattled agency last month.

Reports that dozens of people died while waiting to see a doctor and that employees covered up long wait times at the Phoenix VA helped touch off a national firestorm over veteran care. The former VA secretary was forced to resign.

McDonald, a former Procter and Gamble CEO who took the top VA post July 30, met with veterans, hospital employees and caregivers during his Phoenix visit.

He promised to regain trust by changing the culture of the organization. He held up a button that employees are wearing under his leadership that promises to uphold the agency's mission of putting vets first.

 

That is the whole thing, no need to follow the link. Kim Kardashian got more space for her new selfie project...

[RV_]

Stan thanks for keeping us informed on your local fiasco there. I live by Overton Brooks VA regional Hospital who also runs the Tyler and local area satellite offices. I prefer my own doctors but have gone there for my evals and was going to pursue the back and neck issues there but decided that I much prefer my own Docs even if I have to pay a copay. We also have a local base with a clinic that used to be a full hospital where I was a medic in when I first started in 1971, and later a med Lab Technologist in the reserves there during my break in service for college too. The Barksdale AFB Clinic also has a pharmacy for our scrips. We have done swaps and support for the VA back in the 70s and the local medical school and charity hospital LSU Medical center. Never have I seen people getting away with the kinds of malfeasance in a civilian or DOD government position. So far I haven't heard our local VA hospital in Shreveport being involved in this but we will see.

 

Don't worry Stan. Philpot and the Mitary.com organization as well as AFSA and all the other service organizations are also watching.

[Cyberdave]

Received this in the weekly Military.com. It gives some interesting insight and background. Seems the General's hands weren't totally clean.

 

Until he resigned in May, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki led his department of more than 350,000 employees for five years by setting “bold goals” that looked impossible to achieve but that he knew, from his Army years, could inspire better performance and, from Congress, bigger budgets.

But did a goal to cut wait times in half for patients seeking care finally put VA administrators under such pressure that many chose to manipulate performance data, compromise their integrity and even put patients at risk?

A VA physician described for me his reaction, and that of colleagues, when word reached them in 2011 that veterans seeking a primary care appointment, or specialty care consults, were to be seen within 14 days rather than 30 days, the goal VA health care had used since 1995.

“That statement that we had to see patients within 14 days was so unbelievably unrealistic that people laughed at it,” the doctor recalled. He spoke frankly on condition that I not reveal his name or where he works.

“When I first started with VA I was told that when they put in a consult to [my specialty] — and it’s all computerized so you can see exactly the time it was placed — the goal was to see that patient within 30 days. If we were seeing 80 to 85 percent within 30 days, [bosses] were happy,” he said.

“That became very difficult because the volume of patients was just overwhelming. Then, all of a sudden, we heard that 30 days had become 14 days. It wasn’t any kind of an official announcement. And I’ve got to be honest: nobody made a big deal about it. In fact they didn’t pay any attention to it at all. It was just so stupid they might as well have told me I had to see the patient within 14 seconds. It wasn’t going to happen.”

Not everyone inside VA health care, however, could ignore the new goal as nonsense. Administrators responsible for hitting appointment timeliness marks suddenly had higher hurdles to clear, or to scoot around.

Who set the new goal and for what reason?

A senior VA official made available to discuss this said the 14-day goal has been removed from all supervisor performance plans. He also said he didn’t know who made the original decision or whether it was an individual or a group.

When it was set, he explained, apparently there was concern about ensuring that patients who needed critical care be given “same-day access.” So someone suggested that lowering the 30-day goal, he said, would somehow incentivize staff to deliver more same-day care to critical patients.

“I think the mistake we made was to use as an average measure” a 14-day goal set per appointment, as though using it would signal “we had same-day access for people who critically required it,” this official said. “I think we just saw 30, we wanted to get closer to same day access, and so they adjusted the performance measure from 30 to 14.”

That was as clear as he could explain what occurred. In retrospect, he added, another mistake was “we didn’t change the resourcing levels with the [new] resource requirement.”

In other words, the 14-day goal was set but not funded. VA health budgets still grew for identified purposes and programs, but no dollars were committed specifically to shortening patient wait times. That would have meant hiring more physicians, nurses and support staff, buying more equipment and setting up more examining rooms and operating rooms.

“That was a mistake,” this official conceded. Why no funding?

“At the time, it would have just been people thinking that setting bold goals was a good thing for an agency,” he said.

That sounded familiar. Bold had characterized Shinseki’s leadership style. He was the secretary who promised to end veteran homelessness by 2015. He also promised by that year to end the compensation claims backlog, which he conceded he had aggravated with another bold move. Shinseki added heart disease, Parkinson’s and B-cell leukemia to the list of conditions VA would compensate for and treat as service-connected ailments if veteran had stepped foot in Vietnam. Scientists had found an association between these ailments and defoliants like Agent Orange used in the war.

Last summer, while Shinseki was visiting a VA claims processing site in Newark, N.J., I interviewed him about his ambitious goals.

“There’s a fine line between being bold and foolish,” the retired four-star general and wounded warrior said. “I think for the most part, over all the things I’ve ever done in life, [i’ve mostly been] bold and a few times foolish. I think I’m bold here.”

He said he didn’t regret setting bold objectives.

“I’ve been writing plans all my life. I never wrote a tentative plan. That’s not what you expect from a guy you want to solve a problem.”

Debra A. Draper, director for health care at the Government Accountability Office, said VA officials told GAO that they had lowered the wait time goal to 14 days because performance data by 2011 showed VA was meeting the old goal for more than 95 percent of veterans seeking care.

The trouble with that decision, Draper said, was that VA appointment data had been unreliable for years, as both by GAO and the VA’s Inspector General often reported. Yet meeting wait time goals had been an element of VA performance contracts for administrators since at least 2000, she said.

Factors that made the data unreliable included a scheduling policy that was unclear and open to local interpretation; antiquated scheduling software; inadequate staff training and, effectively, no oversight of data reports.
Was the shift to 14 days a factor in the current scandal?

“You don’t know people’s motivations,” Draper advised. “But, yeah, going from 30 days to 14, for someone who was planning to do something nefarious or manipulative, it’s more pressure to do that.”

But Draper believes the scandal would have occurred even if VA had left the 30-day goal in place because so many veterans were complaining to Congress and to veteran groups about long waits to access care, she said.

“Whether it’s 14 or 30 days, data need to be reliable so they can really measure [and manage] to whatever the benchmark is,” Draper said.

Send comments to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120, email milupdate@aol.com or twitter: Tom Philpott @Military_Update

[skp51443]

Interesting, I'm hoping the investigation doesn't get sidetracked by all the other problems.

[skp51443]

More from the local papers:

 

McCain

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/08/21/mccain-phoenix-va-boss-still-employed/14420773/

 

Public forum

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/08/21/irate-veterans-complain-va-benefits-delays/14375933/

 

Firing Rules changes

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2014/08/21/new-rules-streamlinefiring-va-executives/14375561/

[Phaeton10]

Sharon Helman, is on paid vacation until the investigation is completed. WRONG WRONG WRONG

[skp51443]

A rather sickening article on VA support for vets with suicidal tendencies.

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/investigations/2014/08/24/phoenix-va-system-suicidal-vets/14523545/

 

 

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who's taken on VA mental-health care as a special project, said she has received no statistical information on suicides or wait times at Phoenix VA despite repeated meetings with hospital administrators.

"I have only anecdotal data," Sinema acknowledged. "It's really hard to get answers, to get the truth. ... I've never seen an agency so resistant, and it hasn't gotten better."

Even the limited information divulged by VA officials seems questionable. For example, they reported 12 veteran suicides in the Phoenix area in 2012, and 49 last year. Then they explained that the seeming increase of more than 400 percent was caused by a change in data collection last year. By checking deaths from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office in 2013, they learned of another 31 Phoenix veterans who took their own lives.

Even the suicide total, 49, appears to be inaccurate. Arizona vital statistics show 226 people with military service records killed themselves last year. Maricopa County contains more than half the state's population. Yet, by the VA's calculations, it would account for barely one-fifth of Arizona's veteran suicides.

Such statistical glitches appear to be widespread in the VA.

 

But now we have other issues so all of this is pretty much forgotten and the guilty just have to wait a bit for the last of the smoke and lies to blow away before going back to their old games.

[Cyberdave]

Stan,

 

Like we've said before, lie, bury it, seal it up, wait it out.

 

That Beatles song makes a little more sense every day.

[skp51443]

Another suicide related article

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/investigations/2014/08/25/va-suicides-data-conflict/14551479/

 

 

Seven years ago, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rejected allegations by media outlets and watchdog organizations that America faced a suicide epidemic among former military personnel.

The VA claimed just 790 veterans under department care had taken their own lives that year. Yet, by reviewing available public records since 2005, CBS News uncovered 6,256 suicides.

As VA officials publicly disputed the network's data, Dr. Ira Katz, the top mental-health officer, was sending internal e-mails titled "Not for the CBS Interview Request."

"Shh!" Katz wrote in one message. "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our medical facilities."

When the e-mails were disclosed, confirming the CBS findings, some members of Congress called for Katz's resignation or termination.

Today, Katz remains at VA headquarters as acting director of mental health operations. In a phone interview with The Arizona Republic, he and Caitlin Thompson, deputy director for suicide prevention, said veterans' mental-health care is a national success story that merits a B+ if graded on a curve against other programs. Katz said recent data indicate the suicide rate is increasing among men in the general U.S. population but is stable among VA patients. "We're doing relatively well by fighting this trend," he added.

[skp51443]

And a start of the whitewash since the cover up failed.

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/investigations/2014/08/25/va-promises-change-ahead-inspector-general-report/14585735/

 

 

Dan Caldwell, issue and legislative campaign manager for Concerned Veterans for America, doubted the credibility of claims in the documents. With top Phoenix VA Health Care System officials on administrative leave, there is no indication there are trustworthy, new leaders or a new culture at the Phoenix VA, Caldwell said.

"To me, it seems like this was the VA trying to get in front of the IG report and potentially whitewash it," Caldwell said. "They can't be trusted to tell the truth. I haven't seen the full IG report. The VA put the cart before the horse here. To me, that seems intentional on their part."

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., said she awaits the release of the inspector general's full report, "but we already know veterans did not get the care they needed. I expect this report to provide additional actions to improve care for veterans. I also expect this report to indicate who was responsible for the outrageous treatment of our veterans so the Secretary of Veterans Affairs can hold them accountable."

"Veterans are sitting on waiting lists and others have died, yet top level officials have not been fired and other officials are being rewarded – that is wrong," Sinema said. "I introduced the bipartisan VA Bonus Accountability Act because VA employees who manipulated wait-time data should not be able to keep the bonuses they received based on this fraudulent data."

 

 

According to the VA analysis obtained Monday by USA Today, the Phoenix whistle-blower "was unable to provide the OIG a list of 40 patient names" and inspectors were "unable to conclusively assert that the absence of timely quality care caused the death of these veterans." It is unclear whether that interpretation accurately reflects the OIG findings.

Dr. Sam Foote, the initial Phoenix whistle-blower, flatly disagreed and said Monday he eventually came up with 45 veterans who died awaiting care. "That is false," Foote said of the VA allegation. "We were able to provide 24 names." In addition, Foote said, the OIG identified at least 18 more veterans who died.

 

 

He said he's stunned that a response to the OIG report was divulged before the report itself: "I think that's mighty strange, and I'd question their motive for doing that."

Cathy Gromek, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, also expressed shock that a commentary was released prior to the official findings. She declined to make the full OIG report available early, but said the leak may require additional investigation.

 

I don't question their motives, who with any sense would? They are covering their behinds so they keep their high paying jobs and stay out of jail. The possibility of civil filings still exists too and the deeper they can bury the truth the less they will spend hiring OJ's team of sleazeball lawyers.

[skp51443]

Now the IG weighs in...

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/politics/2014/09/09/watchdog-va-managers-lied-delays/15334159/

 

Managers at more than a dozen Veterans Affairs medical facilities lied to investigators about scheduling practices and other issues, the department's inspector general said Tuesday.

Richard Griffin, the VA's acting inspector general, said his office is investigating allegations of wrongdoing at 93 VA sites across the country, including 12 reports that have been completed and submitted to the VA for review.

"The rest are very much active," Griffin told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Griffin's office has been investigating VA sites across the country following reports of widespread delays in care that forced veterans in need of medical care to wait months for appointments at VA hospital and clinics. Investigators have said efforts to cover up or hide the delays were systemic throughout the agency's network of nearly 1,000 hospitals and clinics.

While incomplete, Griffin provided the panel with a snapshot of the results so far.

Managers at 13 facilities lied to investigators about scheduling problems and other issues, he said, and officials at 42 of the 93 sites engaged in manipulation of scheduling, including 19 sites where appointments were cancelled and then rescheduled for the same day to meet on-time performance goals.

Sixteen facilities used paper waiting lists for patients instead of an electronic waiting list as required, Griffin said.

 

 

Read the rest at the link above.

[skp51443]

And add a bucket... no barrel of whitewash.

 

Toss in some impossible to meet requirements.

 

Lie about the whistleblowers actual complaints and the data they provided.

 

Stonewall, leak selected tidbits (true or not) to make this all go away.

 

I put up snips but a full reading of the linked article is really needed to see what is being attempted, while of course the guilty continue to draw full pay, accumulate retirement credit and best of all aren't even required to show up at work.

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/investigations/2014/09/10/report-phoenix-va-deaths-raises-questions/15375005/

 

 

Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general's report on delayed health care at the Phoenix VA medical center used a standard to evaluate patient deaths that would be virtually impossible to meet, according to medical experts.

Inspector General Richard Griffin, who oversees the VA's internal watchdog agency, stressed in his Aug. 26 report that investigators were "unable to conclusively assert that the absence of timely quality care caused the deaths" of Arizona veterans who died while on secret wait lists for appointments.

Media outlets widely ­reported that whistle-blower allegations were exaggerated and that veterans were not ­severely affected by wrongdoing at the Phoenix VA medical center.

But health-care experts say Griffin's report used a measure that is not consistent with pathology practices because no matter how long a patient waits for care, the underlying "cause" of death will be a medical condition, rather than the delay.

 

 

During a Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs hearing Tuesday, Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., challenged the language in the OIG report, suggesting it downplayed the effects of long-standing VA delays in delivering care to ailing veterans.

"I don't want to give the VA a pass on this, and that's exactly what this line does," Heller said to Dr. John Daigh, assistant inspector general for health-care inspections. "It exonerates the VA of any responsibility in past manipulation of these ... wait times."

Heller grilled Griffin about whether the cause-of-death standard was in initial drafts of his report or was inserted after VA administrators reviewed the findings and urged changes. Griffin acknowledged the changes were not in early drafts, but he added emphatically, "No one in VA dictated that sentence go in the report, period."

Untimely care is not among the recognized causes of death published by the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

 

 

In e-mail correspondence, The Arizona Republic asked VA officials to point out a previous inspector general report that listed untimely care as the cause of a patient's death. Griffin did not identify any such report or respond to questions about why he used the unprecedented standard in Phoenix.

He also would not discuss why his investigative findings did not address how many deceased patients might have lived longer if timely treatment had been available, or the hundreds of surviving veterans whose medical conditions could have been improved — or suffering reduced — if not for inappropriate delays in care.

Inspectors did not interview any veterans or family members before reaching their conclusions, according to a spokesman for the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

The OIG report said that more than 3,400 Arizona veterans were subjected to delays while on unauthorized wait lists and that at least 28 patients were affected by "clinically significant delays in care." Six of them died. The report also criticized the Phoenix VA Health Care System for "unacceptable and troubling lapses in follow-up, coordination, quality and continuity of care" and said managers knew about the scheduling misconduct.

Based on the OIG's cause-of-death conclusion, many media outlets cast the investigative report as vindication for the VA and as refutation of Arizona whistle-blower claims.

 

 

 

n a statement to The Republic, Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House committee, said significant changes were made to the inspector general report after viewing by VA administrators and were "selectively leaked" by the agency. He concluded: "This matter deserves further study and review. We will ensure that happens."

The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs has scheduled a hearing Sept. 18, with Dr. Sam Foote and a Phoenix VA employee, Dr. Katherine Mitchell, both Arizona whistle-blowers, mong the witnesses.

OIG investigators corroborated virtually every major allegation of wrongdoing submitted by the two whistle-blowers. Nevertheless, the report and congressional briefing papers contain passages that appear to criticize Foote and his credibility, emphasizing that "the whistle-blower did not provide us with a list of 40 patient names." The passage referred to VA patients Foote said died while awaiting care in Phoenix.

According to the House committee, OIG staffers acknowledged during a briefing that the sentence jabbing Foote was not in the original draft of the Phoenix report but was inserted in response to comments by VA administrators during a review.

In interviews and a written rebuttal, Foote said the portion of the report about him is "false and misleading" because he and other whistle-blowers provided 24 names to inspectors and explained where in VA records to identify 16 more.

Another part of the VA report acknowledged that Foote had supplied at least 17 names and that others could not be traced because documentation had been destroyed by VA employees.

[skp51443]

This first one starts off a bit political, please ignore that part! However it does get to the point where the VA, in trying to hush up the exposure this issue is dragging out into view, released information that has been classified as restricted every time it has been requested previously.

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/09/12/va-rips-ad-sinema-vets-suicide/15494861/

 

 

By sending the e-mail, Costie revealed information about Somers' case that VA officials have declined to provide to The Republic over months of requests, citing patient privacy and ongoing investigations.

Sinema's campaign manager Michelle Davidson criticized the VA for claiming it had no role in Somers' death.

"It is offensive for the VA to claim they bear no responsibility for Sgt. Somers' death simply because he was not under VA care at the time of his suicide," she said in a statement. "Sgt. Somers was seeking care from the private sector, but that was only because he was unable to get the care he needed at the Phoenix VA."

Davidson said that Somers was passed between VA doctors and staffers, often unaware of whom he would see next, and his requests for care, drug changes and private counseling were ignored.

 

 

Other news, folks are trying to end the management shuffle designed to insure no civil servant gets dirty enough to be disciplined in the ongoing coverup.

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/2014/09/12/permanent-new-boss-requested-phoenix-va/15495003/

 

 

Arizona's entire congressional delegation sent a letter Thursday to Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald urging him to name a permanent leader of the Phoenix VA medical center to replace Director Sharon Helman even though she remains on the agency's payroll.

The letter, unusual in its bipartisan consensus, notes that two temporary bosses have overseen the beleaguered Phoenix VA Health Care System since Helman was placed on leave May 1 amid allegations of fraud and mismanagement. A third fill-in is expected in November.

"Surely, we can agree that the circumstances surrounding the recent issues at VA facilities around the country are anything but typical and that the Phoenix VA hospital would benefit from increased stability among leadership," the state's two senators and nine House members wrote. "Toward that goal, we request that you take the necessary steps to ensure that a permanent replacement (for) the Phoenix facility is expediently appointed."

[skp51443]

And the saga continues: From the original Phoenix whistleblower:

 

Full article: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/investigations/2014/09/16/phoenix-whistle-blower-alleges-cover-va-report/15754109/

 

Snips:

 

The Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general minimized bad patient outcomes and deliberately confused readers of a recent investigative report to downplay the impact of delayed health care at Phoenix VA facilities, a key whistle-blower asserts in written testimony expected to be delivered today at a U.S. House hearing.

"At its best, this report is a whitewash. At its worst, it is a feeble attempt at a cover-up," Dr. Sam Foote, a retired VA physician, said of the inspector general's report released Aug. 26.

Foote earlier this year revealed that as many as 40 Phoenix patients died while awaiting care and that the Phoenix VA maintained secret waiting lists while under-reporting patient wait times for appointments. His disclosures triggered the national VA scandal.

 

 

Foote said that, among the cases discussed in the inspector general's report, he had direct knowledge of two — and that the report's authors appeared to have downplayed facts and minimized harm in both.

"After reading those two cases, it leaves me wondering what really happened in all the rest," Foote said.

The inspector general also ignored why the Phoenix VA's electronic waiting list was not reporting accurate data, treating it as "a trivial clerical error," Foote said. "(The Office of Inspector General) says it is not charged with determining criminal conduct. True. But neither is it charged with producing reports designed to downplay potentially criminal conduct, designed to defuse and discourage potential criminal investigations, or to diminish the quite appropriate public outrage," Foote said.

Griffin's written testimony, also released Tuesday by the House panel, includes a statement that nearly 300 patients died while on backlogged wait lists in the Phoenix VA Health Care System, a much higher number than the 40 listed in his Aug. 26 investigative report.

According to Griffin's testimony, inspectors reviewed 3,409 charts of patients who were sidetracked on unauthorized or inappropriate wait lists, including the 293 who passed away.

He said that 28 of the veterans experienced "clinically significant delays in care" and that 17 received flawed or inadequate treatment. But he reiterated findings — inserted in the Phoenix report after a draft review by officials at VA headquarters — that inspectors could not conclusively assert that any fatalities were caused by untimely care.

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Of course the laws don't apply to the VA honchos:

 

Full article: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/09/17/phoenix-va-official-may-have-broken-privacy-law/15759017/

 

Snips:

 

The Department of Veterans Affairs is investigating whether a top employee in Phoenix violated patient-privacy law when he sent an e-mail to staffers about a veteran's suicide highlighted in a political ad by U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.

Glenn Costie, acting director of the Phoenix VA Healthcare System, sent the e-mail Sept. 4, defending the hospital's role in caring for Daniel Somers, an Iraq war veteran who took his own life last summer.

Costie was responding to a re-election ad for Sinema that features the parents of Somers, praising her efforts to reform the VA and criticizing the hospital's treatment of Somers.

Now a top VA official says Costie shouldn't have sent the message and that the agency is probing whether Costie violated privacy rules.

 

 

The advocacy group Concerned Veterans of America said Costie's e-mail is a symbol of hypocrisy in the scandal-plagued agency.

Pete Hegseth, head of the veterans group, said he was "outraged" the VA would share health information about a veteran who took his own life.

"The VA hides behind privacy regulations when questioned by the press, and even uses them to silence whistleblowers, but then has no problem surreptitiously leaking the same information to undermine one of their critics when it serves their purposes," Hegseth said in a written statement.

The Concerned Veterans CEO said Costie's e-mail was aimed at undermining Sinema because of her outspoken criticism of the VA.

[Cyberdave]

Why am I not surprised? The bureacraps can't help themselves. Gun Foot Shoot...

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The saga continues with waffles and a nice stonewall\

 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/09/19/states-congressional-leaders-demand-prompt-va-reforms/15869813/

 

Snip:

 

U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema said she received a lot of promises, but not many answers during a meeting with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Bob McDonald Thursday, the day after a contentious hearing about delayed care for veterans at the Phoenix VA hospital.

Sinema, D-Ariz., said she told McDonald she was frustrated by the slow pace of reform in the Phoenix VA Health Care System, which earlier this year became the epicenter of a national scandal over long VA patient wait times and the manipulation of wait-time data by administrators to obtain pay bonuses.

Sinema said she urged McDonald to:

• Fire top administrators found guilty of wrongdoing.

• Hire new top administrators to run the facility.

• Open a 300,000-square-foot auxiliary clinic to treat more patients.

• Complete the hiring of 1,000 new medical personnel to improve staffing.

Her requests echoed recommendations U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, both R-Ariz., made in a letter to McDonald Tuesday.

McDonald told the congresswoman he would provide timetables next week for the likely completion of each of the actions, Sinema said in a teleconference after the meeting.

 

The firing appeals process can take months to years from what I've seen.